Michigan Post Game Quotes

By NU Athletic Communications

| 01/09/2014

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles

On the final series“I have to say I didn’t see a lot of it. Everyone was jumping up in front of me. I saw Terran (Petteway) going up, and I thought we had a pretty good tip on it the first time. We tried to run a naked screen and roll action, so that maybe if they doubled Terran that Leslee (Smith) would be open. Or if Terran got a shot up, we’d have a free run at the rim. And I think we got that. I thought the play that really hurt us was when we have an offensive rebound with a minute and a half or whatever it was, and you just don’t secure it and (Glenn) Robinson III goes down and dunks it to go up two. That just sticks out there. Our two plays where it seemed like we had everything under control and then they make a play.”

On the defense“We just ignored it. What can you do? And you say ‘don’t worry about it’ and whatever. I thought the guys played a pretty good defensive half. I thought Michigan really made a lot of shots. I thought we played good defense, but in the second half, that’s a different conversation. That’s where I thought we lost some of our defensive discipline. We made some errors. Guys just driving right by us. I didn’t push up on (Nik) Stauskas, and late I think they got four straight screen and rolls. We didn’t tag it the way we had been earlier. Coach John Beilein had tweaked it a little bit. Those freshmen and sophomores don’t always recognize it. So we went zone and I thought the zone kept us around.”

On if he’d like an explanation on what happened“That’s kind of a philosophical discussion. If you want to play golf this summer, we’ll think about it then. At this point in time, replay is important. Replay for the right reason is important. To change a call like that is probably hard to do.”

On if Walton shooting is what he looks for in that situation“I don’t know who the drive was designed for. Coach Beilein would probably know better than I. When you are in zone, there’s a few guys out there that you know are going to hurt you. I don’t really like anybody scoring on us.”

On last play decisions“You sit there and the first thing I said coming off was, ‘should I have’? Should I have ran it for Deverell Biggs? He had some screen and roll stuff go for him, but Terran was making a whole bunch of plays late after really struggling. I thought we had it naked, which means there should’ve been no help there so we have a free run at the rim. I didn’t see a lot of it. Somebody told me we had a good tip on it and it didn’t go. That’s all you can ask for. And I believe in all of our guys. One over the other; you are kind of splitting hairs.”

On Biggs’ performance“He made a whole bunch of defensive errors. Guard the ball errors right before that. Right from seven or whatever down to five. Spike Albrecht got around him twice, he didn’t help on a three on Stauskas. Tai (Webster) had just been more solid. It just felt like we needed to be solid. We like bigger guards in the zone too. And to be honest, one time he came out in the first half because we’d run two plays for him and then we are running a play for another guy, and he just kind of doesn’t initiate the play and kind of does his own thing. I quick hooked him and said, ‘no man. Listen, I’m going to run plenty of stuff for you and run stuff for the other guys. You’ll be there.’ That’s just a patience thing with Deverell. And it’s going to come. There’s no doubt about it. Right now, I feel that instead of just leaving him out there to just make mistakes, we can’t give up possessions, so I’m going to bring him out to talk to him and let him go back out. He could’ve easily got five, six, seven more minutes without any issues. You really got to play good defense. You can’t just get beat consecutively like that. If they feel like they can take advantage of you, you’ll be trouble. I thought Deverell was really good when he was in there, and he was doing both. And he’ll improve. I don’t think there’s any question about it. Junior college kids can practice all they want. , but until you get out there in the bright lights, it takes some time to develop. He’s going to learn a lot every night out.”

Terran Petteway, Sophomore Forward

On the last drive of the game“Like Coach [Tim Miles] said, it was supposed to be a ball screen with no help, but I guess they were all sagging off. It was like a bang-bang play, but all I was thinking about was getting to the rim. I made that layup five times before that and missed the game one. It kind of hurt. It’s the worst feeling letting your teammates down at the last second when we could have won a game against Michigan.”

On Michigan’s three-point shot at the end of the first half“We weren’t worried about it. They were playing a good half. They took the lead by a last-second half-court shot, so we weren’t too worried about that. We stuck to the game plan and fought hard to the end.”

On Michigan taking the lead in their last offensive possession“It was a miscommunication by me. I should have switched on Tai [Webster]. That wasn’t his fault. I should have switched. I messed up and [Michigan] got the and one. It was just miscommunication, really.”

On if there was any sense of victory after coming off a loss at Ohio State“You could say that, but we all don’t like losing. Even though we lost by one to Michigan, it still hurts. It’s just not a good feeling. I don’t want to lose to anyone, really. We should have won the game. We can salvage this as a loss and move on to Purdue.”

On if he gained confidence throughout the game“Coach and my teammates just told me to keep driving the ball. They knew I was struggling. I was struggling hard in the first half. They just told me to keep going to the rack. Coach threw up some plays for me in the second half that kind of helped us get a little momentum going. He just told me to keep driving, keep driving. That’s what I did and the shots were following.”

Ray Gallegos, Senior Guard

On three-straight three-pointers in the first half“My teammates we looking for me. They told me just to stay confident and keep shooting. It’s kind of what I did, just moving off the ball and stuff.”

On what the team can take from this game to Purdue

“We’ve just got to take it to practice, go over there, scout and just stick to the game plan with them. We’ll be ready to play.”

Michigan Head Coach John Beilein

Opening Statement"What a basketball game. If you watch these games, last night I think in watching Penn State and Minnesota and all the other games, all the games are going to be like this one. Tim has a great team here, this is going to be a team that gets really good as long as they stay together and stay unified and keep playing together. They really got a lot talent, and he will do the right job with it. We were really fortunate to get this win, we shot 62 percent from the floor, we couldn't stop them. Thank goodness we shot the ball well."

On the end block/charge call "Well, I love the way it went, I loved the way it went. I don't know the block and charge calls are very confusing everywhere in the country. I am sure the people that make these rules are going to find ways to make it better and make it clear to understand. I am just glad we finished it."

On Jordan Morgan's game"It was really good, we have seen this, you have all saw this anyone who has been with us, when we won the Big Ten Championship and had that good year three years ago. He can get things done, he just needs to have confidence. We will take it if it is him one night and Jon the other night. Who knows who is going to get this down, but Jordan was really good."

On the end of the game, if he was holding his breath"Oh yeah, we want to make the foul shot and then we don't do that. then you are going one way or the other in a one point game. The ball was up and it looked like it had a chance, the next one had a better chance, we have been on the other end of that last year for a Big Ten Championship on the line. Fortunately it went our way."

On the team's execution out of time outs I think they are getting better at understanding the timing. The coaching staff does a great job getting the pace and space to do it correct. It was big for us to do that a couple of times."

Forward, #1, Glenn Robinson lll

On the end of the game "Our plan was to just get to the rim. We did a great job finishing that layup, even though there was some contact. The last play was tough, we have been working on that throughout practice. We just had to tough it out and play together as a team through the whole game."

On the shot at the end of the first half and its impact "That had a great impact you know, we were a little bit down because they had just came back and hit a couple of threes. After Derrick (Walton Jr.) hit that shot it amped us up. I thought we had great energy going into halftime and right out the gates we had that same energy. If we play that way we should be a pretty good team."

Forward #52, Jordan Morgan

On the last play defensively "We knew he (Petteway) was going to get the ball, he just had a down hill mindset so it was on us to try and stay in front of him without fouling him and putting him on the free throw line and then try and get the rebound. Our guys did a really good job of that."

Guard #11, Nik Stauskas

On the second half, back and forth play"Yeah I think both teams were doing a really good job of scoring the ball. I think both teams had a hard time stopping each other. Coach was giving me a lot of great opportunities to attack and we found JMO (Jordan Morgan) open on a few shots and I got some too. That is all you can ask for."